


Guide to Falling

by NettleTea



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: All the Talon people are in Blackwatch now, Angel!Jack, Blackwatch, Fluff and Smut, Internalized Homophobia, Loss of Virginity, M/M, Masturbation, Oral Sex, Pining, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, coffee shop AU, roommates au, wonky ages
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-08-04
Packaged: 2018-11-16 15:32:38
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 14,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11255820
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NettleTea/pseuds/NettleTea
Summary: When an honest-to-God (hah) angel calls Gabriel about his ad for a tenant, Gabriel accepts almost immediately- because, well, who would make a better roommate than an angel?Almost anyone, it turns out.





	1. In the Beginning

"So you're an angel."

Gabriel lifted his eyes from his phone to the man before him, seated across the coffee table in his rather sterile living room. Gabriel had never met an angel before, but if he had to put a face to the name, Jack's would have been it. Wide blue eyes framed by blond hair with just a hint of curl to it- very angelic. Distracting, and more so when the man flushed a little at his words.

"Er, yes. Previously," the man- angel- replied, his hands folded in his lap in a way that seemed anxious. "It's nothing to worry about, I haven't got a flaming sword or a desire to smite you into the ground, haha..."

"Hah," echoed Gabriel drily, turning off his phone and placing it on the table between them. "All right, so what happened? Did you fall?" It was rude of him, but there was no sense in pretending to be nicer in the interview process than he actually was.

The question seemed to spark something in the angel, and he unclasped his hands to fold his arms, lifting his chin defiantly. "No. I _chose_ to come down."

"All right sunshine, no need to get huffy about it. Pets?"

"No."

"Smoke?"

There was a confused pause. "Smoke?" the blond being echoed.

"Yes, smoke. Do you?"

"Oh! No."

"Girlfriend? I'll vacate the house one day a week only, for privacy's sake."

Gabriel had to grin a little at the horrified look that slid onto the angel's face. "Oh, no. No, I- no, definitely not. No. We can't do that sort of thing, you know," the angel muttered, blushing again. Gabriel nodded, amused- and, frankly, a little curious. He mentally filed that away for 'later'.

"All right, fair enough. Are you all right with a chore chart?"

"Oh, sure," Jack answered, settling back into his chair like a ruffled bird. "More than happy to do anything. Bathrooms, even."

"We'll take turns on that, seeing as there's only one point five bathrooms, and we'll have to share the one with the shower. You okay if I come and go at weird hours, and lock myself in my office frequently?"

"For your job?" Jack asked quizzically. "Sure."

Gabriel leaned back in his armchair, and crossed his ankles. "Well, as long as you're okay with paying the $800 a month in rent, I don't see why you wouldn't be a good fit. Better than other supernaturals, probably." A brief wave of curiosity came over him, and he regarded the man- angel- keenly. "You got any tricks up your sleeve? I heard the fallen ones can't do anything, but if you're not _technically_ fallen..."

"I'm not," the angel emphasized, once again seeming a little offended at the idea. "And, um. Some things. Like... I can tell if someone is lying."

"Can you? All right, show me. My favorite color is pink and I like the Beatles."

Jack grinned suddenly, and Gabriel blinked. It was like a small ray of sunshine had slapped him across the face. "You like pink?" the angel asked, looking around the room- furnished mostly in blacks, whites, and grays. After a moment, the smile faded. _"You don't like The Beatles?"_

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "No white lies around the roommate, understood. When can you move in?"

Jack smiled again, causing a rather concerning warmth in Gabriel's chest. "Right away," he said.

 

Having Jack in the house was oddly refreshing, in more ways than one.

It had been two months since his boyfriend of two years had broken up with him and moved out, and so it had been two months of a very dark and depressing house in an otherwise pleasant neighborhood. Jack brightened the room simply by existing, and in a very literal fashion; every time the sunlight hit him, he seemed to glow with golden light. Gabriel wasn't certain if he was imagining it, but he suspected angels might just naturally look like they were run through the soft focus of an old Hollywood film all the time. Whenever Jack sat on the black leather couches in the living room, flipping through the baking channels, the room looked less like the hole of a grim bachelor and more like a stylish set in a lifestyle magazine.

Secondly, possibly in relation to the endless cooking shows Jack consumed, the angel could bake. Cooking a steak in a pan seemed to be beyond him, but Gabriel frequently returned from long hours on the job to a warm house and more blueberry muffins than he could ever eat. And the angel loved it when he ate, positively beaming whenever Gabriel hummed a reluctant approval over a raspberry scone.

And, most noticeably, Gabriel hadn't thought himself capable of another romantic flight of fancy since Kyle had left him, certainly not so soon, but he was achingly attracted to Jack. The way he moved was positively hypnotizing, his smile made Gabriel feel like he was the only one in the world who mattered. It was almost disturbing, and Gabriel sometimes wondered if he was perhaps a siren or a incubus instead. But there was something so undeniably wholesome about him, too, that it felt almost wrong to be drawn to him in that way.

And it wasn't just him that felt that way about Jack, Gabriel discovered.

Gabriel's work for Blackwatch kept him busy, often working late into the night. Jack, on the other hand, worked at Target.

( _Target._ Gabriel had never seen someone look so good in khakis and a red polo.)

So Jack was out from nine to five on week days, which meant that they saw very little of each other their first month. But one Thursday afternoon, after a particularly frustrating day involving a prisoner who just wouldn't talk, Gabriel filled out his paperwork and came home early. He arrived a little after six, just as Jack was locking the house up.

"Oh, hi Gabe," Jack said pleasantly. Everything Jack said sounded pleasant, and Gabriel didn't have it in him to call him out for using the nickname. "You're home early."

Gabriel grunted, and ran his hands over his face. "Mess of a day. Can't tell you too much about it, it's probably classified or something."

"That's fine," the angel answered mildly, starting to unlock the door again- presumably for Gabriel's sake. And then he paused. "I was about to walk down to get some coffee. Would you like to come?"

Gabriel's immediate instinct was to say no, but that was nearly impossible in the face of Jack's hopeful tone. "Yeah, fine," Gabriel said with a shrug. "Let me just change into something less 'night ops.'"

Jack laughed. "You do look like you might be on your way to hold up the coffee shop," was his reply, stepping back so that Gabriel could get into the house.

"Are you joking with me, Jack?" Gabriel asked incredulously, pausing halfway into the house. He hadn't spoken in great length with the angel, but to his knowledge he had never heard a joke from him, much less one involving robbing a coffee shop. "I thought angels didn't do that."

"We work in mysterious ways," the angel murmured, now looking at his phone. Gabriel stared at him a bit longer, and then went in to change.

 

Ten minutes later, in jeans and a t-shirt rather than dark sweaters and a gun holster, Gabriel joined the angel out on the sidewalk. The sun was drifting towards the first hint of sunset, and the shadows were long around them, but shadows didn't seem to have an effect on Jack. Logically, Gabriel knew the shadows were on him, but it was as if some undeveloped spiritual part of his brain was preventing them from being noticed. It was unsettling, and he rolled his shoulders as if to ward off the feeling. The angel noticed.

"You feeling all right, Gabe?" he asked, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans- and Gabriel cursed himself for noticing how well they fit.

"Yes, fine," he answered, and it didn't seem to be enough of a lie for the angel to call him out on it, or else he was too polite. Instead Jack motioned for him to join, and they fell into step with each other, heading along the quiet road towards the local internet cafe, perhaps a mile off.

There was silence for a time, but silence with Jack was never awkward, something Gabriel appreciated greatly. Nevertheless, as they walked, it dawned on him that now would be as good a time as any to get some answers out of him.

"So, Jack," he began, glancing briefly at the angel, and then away again as blue eyes met his. "How long have you been, uh, 'down here'?"

The angel didn't ask him to clarify. "About three months. I was in a hotel before I found your ad for a roommate."

Gabriel turned to stare at him more blatantly this time. "You've only been on earth for three months?"

Jack shrugged. "Yep."

Gabriel rubbed at his neck, and let out a slow breath. "How do you know how to... do all this, then? Pay rent, buy coffee, hold down a job? Some kind of... angelic intuition?"

The angel laughed, the sound sending a pleasant tingle down Gabriel's spine. "Well, it's not like I never watch people before. I know how things down here work, more or less. I'm good at memorizing procedures."

"Like how to work at Target?"

"If you like."

"...Does Target pay enough for eight hundred dollars a month in rent?"

The angel just shrugged. "If you get to ask all these questions, can I ask you things about Blackwatch?"

"I'm not allowed to- hold on, what?" Gabriel sputtered. "How did you know about- that's classified, that's- wait, because you used to watch over everything, you know about it?"

He could swear the angel's expression turned _mischievous_. "I know some. I'm more interested in what _you_ do. How you feel about it, how things are. Your _personal_ experience."

"You can't 'watch over' shit now that you're here, can you?" asked Gabriel, nonplussed.

"Really, Gabe. Language. And no. I'm mostly human, like you."

Gabriel snorted. "You don't know I'm human. I could be any kind of hidden supernatural."

"Are you?"

Damn. "Yes."

"That's a lie," Jack stated, almost smugly. Gabriel gave him the finger.

"You're too good at that. We could probably use you, in that thing I'm not admitting I work for."

"I like working at Target. It's nice to help people. And don't worry, your secret is safe with me."

No doubt. "My organization helps people."

The angel regarded him coolly. "Not like that."

Fair enough. Blackwatch really wasn't for the nicer humans and supernaturals. Some kinds were naturally better at it- he could swear the workforce was 80% vampire, although he knew that was exaggeration. In contrast, there were no nature spirits and no gnomes in Blackwatch at all. It took a certain kind of person, or creature. He suspected angels were at the bottom of the list.

"Why'd you come down?" he asked instead.

The was a longer than normal pause. "I felt like I was getting... too attached to people as a whole," the angel answered finally. "My judgement was... off kilter. I decided to take a leave of absence."

"So you could go back whenever you wanted?"

Another hesitation. "I suppose. So long as I am... unsullied."

"What?"

"So long as I've avoided temptations," Jack clarified. "The bigger ones, mostly. Not become too greedy. Not participated in intercourse. Not killed or stolen or hurt someone deeply."

"That's got to be a lot to worry about," Gabriel muttered, trying not to feel too disappointed at the idea of no intercourse. It made perfect sense, he just hadn't wanted to dwell on it. "What was it like, up there?"

"It's not really 'up there'-"

"Yeah, sure. But what's it like in... there?"

"You're allowed to say 'heaven', Gabe," Jack said softly, with a smile that melted into something warm and distant. "Indescribable."

"Cop-out answer," Gabriel muttered, and- Christ, was he blushing like a school girl? Stupid angel.

Jack merely shrugged. They walked again in comfortable silence, Gabriel unable to think of something else to ask, Jack apparently lost in thoughts of the plane of existence he had left.

They arrived at the coffee shop as the sun was beginning to set. Jack greeted the barista by name- a stick thin elf with short brown hair by the name of Lena- which Gabriel supposed indicated how often the angel had been there. He hadn't really been aware of what Jack did when he wasn't around, but apparently a great deal of it involved a severe addiction to caffeine. Was that a vice?

The cafe was largely empty, and so Jack flitted between employees, catching up with them as their drinks were made. Gabriel watched him in silence from the side, feeling somewhat out of place in this familial atmosphere. Everyone seemed enraptured with Jack- infatuated, even. It must have been that angelic charm working its magic on everyone, and Gabriel couldn't honestly say he was immune, but it was still fascinating to watch the way everyone lit up and blushed when Jack talked to them.

"Plain black coffee, love?" came a voice from his side, and Gabriel jumped at the sudden appearance of the elf barista. God, elfs moved silently.

"Thanks," he muttered, not really paying attention. But Lena must have been, because she easily followed his gaze, to that bright center of the room everyone was watching.

"Amazing, isn't he?" she remarked suddenly. "Everyone's a little bit in love with him. I'm gay as hell and I'd be lying if I said I hadn't considered it."

Gabriel snorted. "Hell's got nothing to do with it."

 

The walk back to the house was also quiet, but just as comfortable as before. The autumn air was chilly, but the warm cups of coffee warded it off well enough. Jack, as ever, glowed in the sunset, his blond hair susceptible to the reddish hues. Not that Gabriel was staring. Not at that positively unearthly beauty. Not at all.

"They're wonderful people," Jack said suddenly, looking blissed out on caffeine and warmth.

"Who?"

"All of them."

"Jesus, Jackie, you'd think cockroaches were wonderful people." The endearment slipped out before he could catch himself, but Jack didn't seem to notice.

"Well, cockroaches serve their purpose-"

"Yeah, yeah, all that angelic shit. I get it."

Jack gave him a rather fond smile. "Everything is beautiful in its own way, Gabe. Even you."

"...Thanks. Wait, are you calling me ugly?"

"No."

"You're implying it. 'In your own way.'"

"...No."

"You're lying."

"Angels don't lie."

"Suuure they don't."

 

They reached the house again with no issues, ate a little food, watched a little TV, and then Jack retired early so that he could get up at the terrible hour of 4:30 to meditate or pray or do whatever it was he did. And after he had closed the door to his bedroom, Gabriel sank back in the couch with a sigh, and dozed to warm images of Jack. Jack, like sunshine. Jack, smiling like the sun at the lame jokes Gabriel cracked. Jack, being so fundamentally good.

And Jack, who certainly knew what Gabriel did for a living, and probably had that terrible biblical love for sinners that was really more like pity. Nothing made Gabriel feel so unclean as standing beside the angel for any length of time.

It was comforting, in a way, to know that whatever dirty thoughts Gabriel may have had about the angel in the dead of night, they didn't really matter- Gabriel was a textbook "sinner," whatever that meant, and the angel was above temptation, and nothing would ever happen. Gabriel could almost, _almost_ , pretend that was akin to permission to watch and to dream.


	2. Blessed Be the Sinners

Life went on as it always had for Gabriel- uncomfortably. Back when he had been with Kyle, he had stepped down from most physical Blackwatch missions, choosing instead to oversee and orchestrate from a distance so that he would be home more often. Now he was beginning to seriously reconsider this, because every moment spent at home was another moment of obsessing over the angel, who remained completely oblivious.

He started to drag his feet getting home, choosing to sit in his office until he knew Jack would be getting ready for bed (and this wasn't hard, because Jack went to bed at about 8:30). He organized filing cabinets, repaired weathered documents, renamed files, and even went as far as to carefully read everything he put his signature on. It was getting ridiculous.

On one rainy evening, when he was placing all alphabetized files in folders to match the visible light spectrum, Sombra stopped by to see him. You always knew it was Sombra, because no one else moved as silently as a ghost purely for the pleasure of running a clawed finger down your spine.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Sombra," he growled, having instinctively whirled with a clenched fist to strike the air behind him, but Sombra was already two steps back and grinning like a maniac. Her fangs were particularly prominent in the soft office light.

" _Hola_ , Gabe. You're so _tense_. All these late nights are getting to you," she said, and raised an opaque covered cup with a straw to her lips. It had a little pink skull on the side, which Gabriel considered in poor taste, given its probable contents. "You should go home. See _Jack_."

Gabriel deigned to roll his eyes at her, and stooped to pick up the jade colored folder he had dropped. It was frustrating that the vampires could still sneak up on him- indeed, would, whenever they had the chance. He knew it was a point of contention among most of the vampires that he had authority over nearly all of them, assuming- as most humans were- that he was significantly weaker than they were. He wasn't, but that didn't mean he could hear them when they crept over the carpet like wraiths.

"I'm not impressed that you've been spying on Jack, Sombra," he grunted, moving to put the folder in the drawer. "That's your job. But I hope you've been watching through the Target cameras, because I don't need your spying bullshit in my house."

"Me? Nooo. But don't you think he's so pretty? _Angelic_ , one might say."

"It's not a secret that he's an angel, he tells everyone he meets. Stop phrasing everything like it's blackmail."

Sombra sipped at the drink, and then made a dismissive gesture at him. "If you're so sure you know everything, that's fine. But you should see the way he looks at you, Gabe-"

Mercifully, her words were cut off by the most unsubtle door-opening in recent memory. Amélie thrust open the door with all the grace of a water buffalo, defining all expectations based on her slim physique. "Sombra, stop it," she said silkily, and Sombra stopped, because even supernaturals had difficulty resisting a direct command from a succubus. She turned her eyes on Gabriel next, and he once again thanked a nameless deity that he wasn't sexually attracted to women. It was like a superpower, around succubi.

"Did you get the latest mission report?" she asked, striding forward on long legs that Sombra's eyes stuck to like glue.

"Read it twice," was his truthful answer, because he had indeed read it twice to put off going home. "You had no contact at all with the suspects?"

"Watched them through a scope," Amélie replied, doing an unconscious thing with her hair that would make most men weak at the knees. Sombra tilted her head to get a better view. "They are not subtle. Idiots. They have two, maybe three supernaturals locked up down there. They deserve death for what they've been doing to them."

Gabriel rubbed at his eyes. Christ. There were actual scientists out there, of all species, who ran perfectly legitimate tests on volunteering supernaturals to see if their various abilities could be replicated. They'd been doing it for years, and were entirely unsuccessful; each species got what they got and lived with it.

Then there were the crackpots who thought it was all being covered up. Mostly humans, they gave humanity as a whole a bad name. They settled for supernatural trafficking instead, and mutilated their test subjects beyond recognition in their search for the source of their innate power. Amelie's team had been tracking a group of such monsters for two weeks now, and they had finally settled in a base of operations near Deadlock Gorge, meaning Blackwatch could swoop in at any time, if given the okay by their higher-ups. But so far, no okay had come.

"Fuck. All right, everybody should head home. Be ready if we get the go-ahead, but remain out of sight until then."

Amelie nodded; this was old news. Turning on her heel, she strode out of the room, and slammed the door behind her as though she wasn't one of the greatest stealth operatives Blackwatch had ever seen. Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose; he could feel a headache coming on. And to speed it along, Sombra laughed. "You're all so impatient, Gabe. We could just swoop in and take care of them before anyone knows what's happening."

Gabriel glanced at the clock. 9:32PM. Jack would be in bed by now. With a weary sigh over the top of Sombra's babble, he began to pack up his things. "Don't you have a coffin to get to or something?"

"Oh, very funny, Gabe. 'He's funny.' I'll put that in your file."

"It's Commander Reyes to you."

"Mhm."

 

The cooking channel was playing softly over the back of the couch when Gabriel got home, but the house was dark and Jack didn't seem to be around. Gabriel dropped his stuff by the door and trudged into the bathroom to take a shower. Once soothed by warm water and soap, he threw on a pair of boxers and hunted down a beer from the fridge. There was just as many there as the last time he checked, so he supposed Jack must have some strict moral codes against alcohol. Or maybe just against taking a roommate's things. Either worked.

He felt exhausted but too wound up to sleep. Feeling his way through the living room, lit only by the flickering light of the TV, he grabbed the remote and threw himself down on the couch- and then yelped and sprang back up again, because what he had taken for a lumpy blanket was in fact a regular blanket over a lumpy Jack.

"Whassat?" asked the angel groggily, sticking his mussed head of hair out from under the blanket to observe Gabriel as he cursed and wiped up the beer he had spilled on his bare stomach. "What are you doing?"

And then, "...Why are you naked?"

"I'm not naked!" Gabriel snapped, and then felt bad about it immediately. "Jesus, Jackie. What are you doing under there?"

The angel grinned sleepily. "'Jackie'?"

"Shut up. My question stands."

"Well, I was sleeping, I suppose," the angel said, sitting up and stretching. He was wearing a baggy shirt twice his size with a couple of holes and a faded ad for a Bible camp on it, and his face was red under his messy hair from where he'd been lying on it, and Gabriel could swear up and down that he was the most beautiful creature he'd ever seen. Belatedly, he realized he was being asked a question, and he blinked and looked away.

"What?"

"I said, has work been rough lately? You've been coming back so late." Jack patted the couch cushion next to him, an invitation.

"Something like that," was his evasive reply. It didn't set off the angel's lie detector if he didn't technically lie, and he didn't much feel like trying to explain that he'd been avoiding Jack for the sake of all the lustful, lustful thoughts he'd been having. As it was, he should have made an excuse to head to his own room, but the angel patted the couch again. And Gabriel was weak.

This was probably why he was a man and not an angel, Gabriel thought guiltily as he sank into the seat beside him. Jack looked thoroughly delighted that he had honored him by sitting there, an expression that always felt like a needle to the heart. It was overwhelming sometimes, having Jack direct his happiness at you. Like staring into the sun, or being swaddled in cotton candy.

The angel didn't say anything immediately, instead turning his attention to the cooking show, so Gabriel cleared his throat and asked, "What have you been doing?"

"Oh, a lot of things!" Jack said at once, turning back to face him, and Gabriel ignored the stab of pleasure at having the angel's full attention on him once more. "I spent three hours after my shift at Target helping out at the coffee shop. They say I'm a natural, and Lena's hoping she can put in a good word for me to be hired there. I really would like that, I think I prefer making coffee to folding clothing."

"That's because clothing doesn't feed your caffeine addiction," said Gabriel, before he could stop himself. The angel flushed.

"I don't have a caffeine addiction."

"Ah huh."

"Besides, they can always use some help around the place."

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, blondie."

"You know, someone even gave me their number today."

"Yeah, su- wait, what?" Gabriel shifted in his seat, trying not to notice the dropping sensation in the pit of his stomach. Stupid. "Who gave you their number?"

"This lovely lady I talked to at the coffee shop today, Vanessa. She ordered a soy chai latte."

Gabriel cleared his throat, and tried to sound casual. "Are you... gonna do anything about that?"

"What do you mean?" Jack asked, looking at him with all of his wide-eyed angelic innocence.

"I mean, are you... going to ask her out?"

"Out where?"

"Out- hold on, you're messing with me."

Jack grinned, looking remarkably unabashed. "Yes, sorry. No, I'm not going to ask her out. She'll want sex, at some point, won't she?"

Gabriel swallowed, and took a swig of beer to steady himself. "Yes, probably."

Jack nodded, and glanced back at the television. "So... no. I can't."

It was wrong, Gabriel knew, to keep pursuing this topic. Hell, a lot of the things he did and thought were wrong, but with Jack, they were so unbelievably hard to resist. He was beginning to wonder if maybe his great grandmother had been a demon or something, with the little thrill he got from forcing the angel to consider corrupting actions. He knew Jack could hold his own, he wasn't weak and he wasn't nearly as naive as he pretended to be, but it was so terribly fun to poke at him sometimes.

"So they never had sex in Heaven, then?" he asked innocently, and was rewarded by a blush visible even in the dim light.

"What? No!" the angel sputtered. "I mean, what? No. No, we were above things like that. It was an entirely different plane of... I mean, we weren't animals."

"You really have no idea how fun it is, do you?"

"It doesn't look fun. It looks messy and awkward and really only useful for procreation."

"Yeah, well, that's because you've never tried it, Jackie."

Jack rolled his eyes at him. "It's not worth the price."

"Have you ever considered it?"

He hardly thought about the question as he asked it, but the angel's demeanor became so changed so rapidly that Gabriel experienced a kind of emotional whiplash. "No, I- I mean, not as- it's not- I mean, a little, but-" Jack managed, and Gabriel nearly choked on his beer.

"You've _thought about it?_ "

"I hadn't _meant_ to!" the angel wailed, and he sounded so distressed that Gabriel immediately checked himself. "It's not something I can do, so there's no use in dwelling on it, and I try not to think about it, but it's harder now that I'm more human than I was-"

"Woah, Jackie, it's all right," Gabriel said, resting a hand on Jack's shoulder and trying to pitch his voice to something more soothing. It seemed to work, because the angel let out a little sniff but settled down. "Everyone's got weird thoughts sometimes. It's all about not acting on them, right?"

"Right, yes," was the murmured reply.

They sat back to let the silence mend the damage. After a while, Gabriel offered Jack a sip of beer, and to his surprise the angel took a tentative sip, though he made a face and handed it back almost immediately, swearing up and down that it was the most disgusting thing he had ever tasted. Slowly, the atmosphere became comfortable again, and Gabriel's brain apparently decided this was unacceptable, because he suddenly blurted out the question that had been on his mind.

"Could you stay here on Earth, if you wanted to?"

Jack rested the back of his head on the couch and closed his eyes, and Gabriel took the time to drink in the sight of him, his features pale and ethereal in the glow of the television. "Yes," he said, after a time. "I could stay. It's different from falling, you know. Falling, it's usually something they did in Heaven that causes them to be cast out. But coming here on your own, and choosing to stay... that's like adapting, maybe. Integrating yourself into mortality. I'd start to age, and I'd die just like anybody else."

"You're not aging?"

"No."

Gabriel slowly peeled the beer bottle label as he thought. "So... how long are you going to stay?" he asked finally.

Jack didn't open his eyes. "I don't know. I don't know if this... leave of absence is helping at all, or making it worse."

"What worse?"

"Just... the way I feel," Jack murmured, and Gabriel felt he shouldn't pry further into that.

There was silence again for a long while. Gabriel watched the cooking show without even really seeing it, and so was a little alarmed when Jack's head fell onto his shoulder with a soft snore. He considered gently pushing him back upright, or else sliding out from under him to get to his own room, but feel of the angel against his skin was soothing, like being directly injected with comfort and peace.

There was no resisting it. In five minutes he was asleep as well. The cooking show talked on.

 


	3. Confessional

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've gotten so many great comments, you guys are so lovely. But curse you CardboarianNights and Uriel_Ignatius121 for having theories that were waaaay better than what I was planning. *shakes fist*
> 
> Warning for a little internalized homophobia in this chapter. A shorter chapter, but I take the inspiration where I can get it. It usually only lasts 48 hours.

The news came through the next morning. Gabriel's phone rang, waking him from a sound sleep, and jolting Jack out of a comfortable headrest when Gabriel's body was suddenly vertical. Wiping the sleep out of his eyes, Gabriel answered the phone, and got the news: Blackwatch had been given the signal to move in on the gang performing supernatural experimentation, and they wanted him in person for it. After a brief exchange of information, Gabriel hung up the phone and looked back at the angel, who was in the middle of a huge (and very endearing) yawn.

"I'm going to have to head out, Jack," he said quietly, and winced at the sudden feeling of pins and needles all down his side. Angels were comforting, but they weren't light.

"S'fine," Jack murmured sleepily, curling back up on the couch. "I'll have fresh bread when you get back."

Something in Gabriel's chest gave a sharp twist. "That's... a good idea," he said, and cleared his throat. "But I'll probably be out for a week. Maybe two. It's a... an extended mission. They want me physically there this time, rather than behind the screen."

That woke Jack up properly. "What?" he asked, wide blue eyes boring a hole into Gabriel's soul. "I thought you didn't do that anymore!"

"I stopped when-" Gabriel began, and then paused. He could swear he never mentioned any of this to Jack before. Damn angels.  "Jesus, Jackie, how much about myself and Blackwatch do you know?"

"A bit," Jack answered, almost sullenly. "Isn't it dangerous?"

"There's nothing to worry about," Gabriel said, and then hastily amended (as the angel caught him in a lie), "...If we're careful. I know what I'm doing, Jack. I'm Commander for a reason."

Tearing himself from the angel's radiant presence, he trudged into the comparative emptiness of his room to pack.

 

But as it turned out, there was a great deal to worry about.

The mission only took a week when it was all said and done, but that was because when Blackwatch arrived at Deadlock Gorge there was not much to do besides clean up bodies and bear down ferociously on the monsters who were responsible. They had only been experimenting on three supernaturals, as Amélie had said- one vampire, and two gnomes- but what they had done to the poor beings was certainly enough. When one of the "scientists" was shot in the scuffle, Gabriel couldn't even pretend to be sad about it.

The sadness came after, when they had positively identified the victims, and there was the issue of notifying their families. Gabriel knew he wasn't good at that shit, so he let Commander Ana of Overwatch step in to handle the affairs. She and her team of prissy bastards were better at that sort of thing.

As for Gabriel, he took a red-eye flight back home. The house was dark when he arrived, as most houses would be at three o'clock in the morning, so he let himself in as quietly as he could. 

He took a shower, to get the smell of airports off. He went back out into the kitchen, and poured himself a bowl of corn flakes. Then he poured himself a glass of whiskey, which was better.

He knew he must have been a sight, sitting there in darkness, in his underwear, eating corn flakes and drinking whiskey at three in the morning. It was probably for this reason that the universe saw fit to awaken Jack early and send him out.

The lamp flickered on behind him. "...Gabriel?"

 _Damn it_. "Boo," Gabriel said, without turning around.

"What's the matter? What happened?" Jack asked, and Gabriel could hardly stand the unbearable, earnest _concern_ in his voice.

He managed a shrug. Damned Jack, always able to sense when something was wrong- although, he had to admit, probably anyone could have taken a look at him in this situation and guessed the same. "Nothing," he muttered finally, after a fortifying sip of whiskey. "Bad guys are in custody. Good guys won. Innocents died anyway. It happens."

"Oh, Gabriel..." whispered the angel, coming forward to join him at the counter. He placed a warm hand on the bare skin of his back, and Gabe couldn't suppress a shiver. "You did everything you could."

"You don't know that," snapped Gabriel, and then took a deep breath and another drink. "Fuck. We did everything we were allowed to do. Goddamn Overwatch, overly cautious. We might have saved them if they let us go in earlier."

Jack observed him in silence for a moment, and Gabriel had the decency to be a little embarrassed at the state of himself. But then Jack pulled another stool over to the counter, sat beside him, and refilled his whiskey glass. After another moment of consideration, the angel took out a glass for himself, poured himself a little whiskey, and downed it in one gulp. Gabriel stared at him.

"What?"

"...Nothing." Maybe angels had a higher tolerance for alcohol than he thought. Maybe angels couldn't gag. _Oh, don't go there, Gabriel..._

Jack stared at his now-empty glass. "They're in a better place, now."

Gabriel snorted. "I don't go for that religious bullshit."

"...I'm an _actual angel_ and you don't 'go for' it?"

Gabriel rested his head in his palms. "Shut up."

Slowly, Jack reached up, and smoothed his hand over the back of Gabriel's head, his fingers digging a little into the close-cropped curls. The gesture was warm and affectionate and it eased Gabriel's mind for a fleeting moment as he melted into it. He couldn't stop a contented rumble from escaping, and Jack's fingers twitched and he dropped his hand. _The fuck are you doing, purring?_ Gabriel mentally berated himself. To his left, the angel poured another glass of whiskey and downed that one as well.

In an effort to cover his lovelorn tracks, Gabe took another sip of his own drink and said gruffly, "If Heaven's such a 'better' place, if it's so good and glorious, why the Hell- oh, you know what I mean, stop grinning- would you come down here? Who takes a leave of absence from the fucking highest plane of existence?"

Jack's smile faded a little, and he looked back at his glass and curled his fingers tightly around it. "I did, apparently," he murmured.

"Yeah, but _why?_ "

"Because..." Jack began, and fell silent.

"You're going to have to tell me eventually."

"No I won't."

"You're going to crack someday, might as well get it over with."

Gabriel hadn't expected that to work, but Jack took a deep breath, and then blurted out, "Because I could feel myself becoming... attracted to humans. And you're supposed to remain _impartial_ , and how terrible of me would it be to be able to watch humans... _do_ things, when I'm affected by it? The other angels don't. You just... that's so terribly wrong. I didn't even have a proper body up there. Angels are technically genderless! There was no reason for me to be so... interested, in, in humanity like that."

Gabriel stared at him. Jack downed another inch of whiskey, and ranted on.

"And then! And then I come down here, and the body I was given was a _man's_ body, and it turns out I'm only attracted to _men_. If that's not the Almighty teaching me a lesson, I don't know what is. It's all... so wrong. Maybe I wasn't meant to be an angel at all. I can't go back now, can I? Just with all these thoughts and feelings in my head."

"Jackie-" Gabriel began, but the angel, on a roll and a little tipsy, plowed over him.

"Don't 'Jackie' me, Gabriel! I didn't even know for sure that I was doomed until I became your roommate. Why the- why in the world do you walk around shirtless so often? It's ridiculous! I wasn't supposed to- I don't even know what to _do_ around you. I can't touch you without feeling all those things I've been trying to avoid. You're like... the last and greatest temptation for me, and I didn't want it to be this way. I already loved you for the wonderful soul that you were, and that would have been fine, that's allowed. I didn't need all this... **lust**."

The last word was spoken like it was the dirtiest word to ever come out of his mouth, and in a way it was. Gabriel sat frozen in his chair, his body incapable of moving despite his mind working wildly to take in everything that was said.

When nothing was said in response, the angel dropped his forehead to the counter pitifully. "Ugh," he moaned. "I'm sorry, Gabriel. That wasn't the way- that was awful. I'll just show myself out, then. I'll pay you the next month's rent, but I don't want to burden you with-"

"Shut up, Jack," Gabriel said hoarsely. "Christ. Just... calm down. I don't want you to leave."

The angel sniffed, not moving from where his face was pressed against the countertop. "No?"

"God, no. No, Jack." There was no help for it, he was totally screwed. "I feel the same way about you. I think. I don't actually remember half of what you just said, but I'm pretty sure I do. Fuck Jack, this was not how I imagined this morning going."

Jack let out a little hiccuping laugh, and raised his head a little. He wasn't crying, Gabriel noticed, but he looked exhausted. "I think maybe I shouldn't drink."

"If it lets all these fucking bottled up problems out, then maybe you should drink more often."

The angel gave him a weak smile, and Gabriel knew he should stop comparing Jack's face to the sun, but it was like the first rays of sunlight after a storm. "So..." the blond began.

"So."

"I don't... I don't know what to do, from here."

Gabriel groaned, and rubbed at his face. "Neither do I. I'm worn out, Jack. I think you caught me in a bad mindset."

"I'm sorry," Jack replied mournfully.

"Don't be. How about we just go to sleep and deal with this mess in the morning. The later morning. Like after ten."

Jack nodded. "That sounds like a good idea."

"Right."

"Right."

With a roll of his eyes, Gabriel heaved himself up from the stool (now perhaps a little more conscious of his half-naked body than before), and stumbled towards his room. He was too exhausted to do more than look back once, where he caught the angel staring after him. "Go back to bed, Jackie," he murmured, and the angel nodded once more.

"Sleep deeply," the angelic being answered quietly, and there must have been some heavenly magic in that, because despite everything that had happened Gabriel slept long and without dreams.


	4. The Spirit is Willing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where we earn that E rating. If you don't want to read some NSFW bits, I recommend you skip the latter half of this chapter.

But they didn't talk about it. By the time Gabriel awoke the next morning, Jack had disappeared to his Target job. When he returned that night, Gabriel was in the middle of an intense nature documentary. And so it went.

Gabe had taken two weeks off from work after the mission, just for the sake of resuming his usual sleep schedule. He was home nearly all of the day, rattling around and doing nothing. Any time would have been the perfect time to bring up all these feelings they apparently had for each other.

But no time seemed right. He was being a coward, and he knew it. Every time he thought he might speak up about it, an excuse formed in his mind before he could get it out. Jack looked tired. He hadn't checked the mail yet. Was that the doorbell? Maybe, _maybe_ , Jack didn't want to talk about it because he wasn't bringing it up either...

The Friday night before he was due to return to work, Gabriel decided enough was enough. He rummaged through his sock drawer until he found a deck of playing cards, grabbed a forgotten red wine bottle and two glasses from the kitchen, and settled on the floor of the living room with said items on the coffee table. Perfect.

Jack came home from his job eleven minutes later, not that Gabriel was counting. The quizzical smile the angel bestowed upon him almost made him lose his nerve again, but he stampeded forward. "Welcome home, Jackie," he said, possibly a little too loudly. "Come face me in a game of... what card games do you know how to play?"

Jack tilted his beautiful head. "...Go Fish?"

"...Blackjack it is. Come here, I'll teach you."

"Oh, fine. Let me change," the angel said, tugging meaningfully at his red polo, and at Gabriel's nod he padded into the bedroom. In five minutes he was out again, in that damned baggy pajama top and boxer shorts, but when he crossed over to sit beside Gabriel on the floor instead of across from him it was apparent that their bagginess could do nothing to detract from the grace with which he moved. Stupid heavenly being. He swallowed hard and threw himself into explaining the admittedly simple rules of twenty-one.

"Got it?" he asked, after two minutes, and Jack nodded.

"Well... probably."

Gabriel snorted. "Don't worry about it," he said, and he poured each of them a glass of wine. Again, the angel downed his almost immediately, and Gabriel wondered if it was his way of steeling his nerves. If he was as nervous as Gabriel was, it made sense.

To ease the awkwardness, Gabriel merely let them play and talk about nothing. For an hour, they played simple card games and drank wine, laughing about coffee shop antics and crazy Target customers. It was nice, natural. Gabriel hated how easy it was, because it was only going to be harder if he botched this up. But maybe he didn't need to broach the subject of feelings at all. Maybe they could go back to normal, after all. Maybe...

They moved on to playing Cheat, a game where you were encouraged to lie about the cards you were placing face down, and Gabriel decided he must have been a little wine-drunk if he thought it would be a good game opposite a walking lie detector. The angel easily called him out on the lies he attempted, but remained remarkably unreadable himself.

"Two aces," Jack stated calmly, laying down two cards.

Gabriel narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Are you sure about that?"

Jack looked up at the ceiling. "Absolutely."

Putting down his hand, Gabriel leaned forward, coming to rest with his face inches from Jack's. "Look me in the eye and say that again, blondie," he purred.

He regretted it almost instantly. Jack dropped his gaze to Gabriel, his blue eyes nearly swallowed up with black, and the angel flushed a brilliant red at Gabriel's proximity. He had freckles on his nose, Gabriel noted dazedly. He was so perfect, outrageously, ethereally handsome, and Gabriel nearly lost his mind when Jack wet his lips before replying in a hoarse whisper. "Two aces."

Gabriel lingered there another moment, and then sat back, and rubbed at his face. "I believe you," he said, and turned his eyes back to his own hand of cards. But when he glanced up at Jack, nearly twenty seconds later, he found the angel still staring at him, still a little red, as if he had been frozen in place. "...You all right, Jack?"

"I- yes, I'm fine, I-" the angel started, as if he had been snapped out of a trance, and he shifted uncomfortably where he sat. It was only by the grace of this motion that Gabriel's eyes drifted downwards, and caught sight of the front of Jack's boxers, which were tented obscenely. The mere sight of it sent a bolt of arousal straight to Gabriel's groin. Had he made that happen? To an _angel?_

Jack followed his gaze, and looked positively mortified. "Oh- oh no, I'm sorry Gabe-" he stuttered, lurching awkwardly to his feet with one hand covering his crotch. "You were just- normally I'm wearing pants- can just ignore-"

"Angel," Gabriel said hoarsely, and Jack froze. "'We need to talk about this."

"...Do we, though?" Jack muttered, his face still very pink. "I rather thought we could avoid the subject, um, indefinitely."

There was really no help for it. The angel stood there, flushed and aroused and looking so debauched already, and Gabriel felt something hot and tight curl in his stomach. He wouldn't- couldn't- let this ethereal creature get away from him. The idea of corrupting him was thrilling, and terrifying, and Gabriel wanted it more than anything. He had a feeling the angel wanted it too, but he didn't want to push boundaries too hard, for fear of forcing Jack into something he'd regret.

Slowly, he rose to his feet and took a step towards the angel, a hand's width apart without actually touching him. Jack's lips parted, but he remained frozen in place, looking too dazed to speak, so Gabriel spoke again. "Jack..." he breathed, and was thrilled when Jack shivered at the sound. "How about we try something, _cariño_? Give you a little taste of that earthly pleasure."

"I... I can't have sex, Gabriel," the angel managed, and Gabriel noted the reluctance with which he said it, as though it were so terribly far from what he really wanted.

He smiled, and Jack made a little noise in the back of his throat, the quietest of whines. God, it was intoxicating, knowing the angel was so far gone already. If he'd truly never experienced this before, Gabriel mused, it must have been overwhelming for the creature. It was so easy. It was _fun_.

"No," he murmured, after a suitable pause. "I wasn't going to touch you, Jack. But you- do you ever touch yourself, angel?"

Jack's eyes widened. "No."

"Do you want to try?"

Jack hesitated, and Gabriel wondered if the question was too blunt, if he had lost him. But then Jack admitted, quietly, "I don't know how."

"But you know the mechanics of it."

"...Yes."

Gabriel chuckled. "It's instinctual, angel, trust me."

He could see the angel's mind working, the gears turning rapidly to process all the conflicting notions and desires. Surely this wasn't something that could make the angel unable to return. This wasn't intercourse, this wasn't even technically with another person, per se- although Gabriel was certain it would kill him if he couldn't see Jack bring himself off.

And then Jack, a light in his eyes like he was challenging the universe to strike him down, lifted his chin and said, "Show me."

If Heaven was anything like those words, Gabriel later reflected, he could see what all the fuss was about.

 

Gabriel wasn't exactly sure how they ended up in his room, but when he pulled himself back to collect himself Jack was on his back in his bed, and Gabriel thought his heart might actually explode at the sight of it. "All right, angel..." he breathed. "I'm not going to touch you."

Slowly, he crawled onto the bed and slotted his legs on either side of Jack's waist, smiling a little as he heard the angel's breath catch. Jack lay very still underneath him, his breathing ragged and uneven, his fingers twitching uselessly at his sides. A brief image of fucking the angel into the mattress flashed through his head, and his cock gave an interested twitch. He was painfully hard in his jeans, but it must have been nothing compared to how Jack was feeling below him; the angel looked as though he might come on Gabriel's words alone.

That was also an interesting idea.

"I'm not going to touch you," Gabriel repeated. "And I want you to tell me if you want me to stop, yes?"

Jack nodded furiously. "Yes," he bit out, sounding a little beyond words.

"I'm going to walk you through this," Gabriel murmured, hoping it would reassure him. "But I think you'll get the hang of it pretty quickly, Jackie. You're a fast learner."

"Shut up."

"Ouch, so rude."

"Gabriel, just... do something-!" Jack almost snapped, looking more frustrated than Gabriel had ever seen him. This was new.

"All right." Leaning forward, careful to give Jack's skin only the faintest of brushes as he did so, Gabriel rolled up the angel's terrible Bible camp shirt and pulled it over his head.

If he hadn't been thinking clearly before, the sight of Jack's bare chest was enough to send his brain to a stuttering halt. _He looks like a fucking Greek god_ , Gabriel thought vaguely. He'd never seen the man do any exercise beyond jogging to the mailbox, but the utter bastard had been hiding muscles that rivaled Gabriel's own, which had taken _years_.

Jack squirmed rather uncomfortably under the intensity of his gaze. "What?" he muttered. "We could put the shirt back on, if-"

"Fucking hell, Jackie, you're gorgeous."

Jack dropped his head back to the pillow with a groan. "You're awful."

"You have no idea how much I want to run my lips over every inch of you, angel."

The blond squirmed again. "Damnit, Gabriel, what are you going to do?"

Gabriel laughed. "Language, Jack. _I'm_ not going to do anything. But you... close your eyes, if you'd like. Do you want to take your boxers off or keep them on?"

A hesitation. "On." It was disappointing, but expected; Gabriel knew he couldn't be too comfortable with this yet.

"Okay." Without getting off of Jack, Gabriel leaned over to the beside table and retrieved a little container of lube. "Here, give me your hands."

Eyes closed, ever trusted, Jack reached his hands out, and then recoiled as Gabriel spread the lubricant onto them. "What is that?!" he asked, eyes flying open.

"Lubricant."

"That's disgusting."

"I promise you, it's really not. Close your eyes again."

Jack pouted, but did as Gabriel said, hands still held away from his body. Gabriel couldn't help himself; he reached out and gave the elastic of Jack's boxers a little snap. Jack yelped and swore again, which Gabriel found outrageously hot. The angel was just a bundle of nerves underneath him, on edge and oversensitive, and Gabriel had hardly done anything at all. He had to take pity on him.

"All right, _cariño_ ," he said softly, leaning over to plant his palms on either side of the angel's blond head, "it's the easiest thing in the world. All you have to do is stroke. You'll find a rhythm." Lowering his head, he breathed hot against Jack's ear. "Go ahead, let me see you get yourself off."

Jack bit his lip, eyes still squeezed tightly shut, and brought his hands underneath the waistband of his boxers to grasp his cock. The effect was immediate, and Gabriel knew the little gasp he made would stick with him for years. The angel moved slowly at first, that then more frantically as he found the rhythm, twitching and writhing under Gabriel. His ragged breaths began to be punctuated with small moans and whimpers, and Gabriel wondered if he might come undone just by the sound of him.

"That's it, you're doing beautifully," he whispered, and Jack whined and lifted his hips, thrusting harder into his hands. It was all new to the angel, Gabriel knew. Virginity was one thing, but to never have experienced the sensation at all was quite another. In truth, he was surprised the angel hadn't come already, but he never wanted it to end. It was enough to watch the ethereal being below him, hard and desperate, touch-starved.

Sitting back up to straddle just below his hips, to allow Jack more freedom of movement, Gabriel fought the temptation to take himself in hand as well. He was already selfish enough being with him at all, privy to the experience of Jack's first taste of sexual pleasure. Watching the blond fuck himself into his hands as though nothing else mattered in the world.

"Oh, Jack..." he whispered, hardly realizing he was doing it. The angel's eyes flew open to meet his, blue on black.

Just this simple action seemed to be enough to send the angel over the edge; with a ragged cry, Jack thrust twice more up into his hands, spine arching so much Gabriel was worried it might break. And then, gradually, Jack loosened up and collapsed back onto the bedspread. Pulling his hands back, he threw an arm over his eyes and fought to regain control of his breath.

Carefully, Gabriel climbed off of him and went to retrieve a wet washcloth. On his return, he knelt beside the angel and gently cleaned off his hands; he had hardly finished when Jack curled himself up against him, heedless of the wetness of his boxers, and Gabriel took it as permission to touch him again. Tossing the washcloth over the edge of the bed, he lay beside the angel and scooped him into his arms, moving his hands in gentle circles on his back.

 

Jack spoke first, some ten minutes later, without raising his face from Gabriel's chest. "That was stupidly good."

Gabriel smiled faintly. "That was hardly anything, Jack. You have no idea the things I could do to you."

Jack let out a pitiful groan.


	5. And Lo

When Gabriel awoke, Jack was gone.

This wasn't particularly concerning at first; Jack could have gone out to make breakfast, or went to the bathroom- it was his house too, after all. For a precious few moments, Gabriel allowed himself to lie in the warmth of his bed, inhaling the angel's scent and submerging himself in memories of the night before.

And yet, once the seed of worry planted itself in his head, Gabriel couldn't suppress the feeling that something was wrong. The house was quiet, and the angel wasn't known for his quiet; if he was making food, the TV would be on and Gordon Ramsey would be shouting profanity at somebody. Gabriel tossed and turned for a minute longer, and then forced himself out of bed and padded into the kitchen.

It was going on nine in the morning, and the place was empty. "Jack?" he called, and the name seemed to sit in the stagnant air. Did the place seem darker than usual? Now he was getting paranoid.

"Jack? You here?" he called again, a little louder, but there was no reply. He went to knock on the door to the angel's room, but it wasn't closed all the way and swung open under his fist, revealing Jack's spartan room. It looked the same as ever, minus Jack.

Gabriel rubbed at his temples, and turned away. Jack might have gone out to get coffee. Or did he have work at Target today? He didn't normally work on Saturdays, but it was possible he had taken on an extra shift. It wasn't like Gabriel had expected him to leave a note or anything, he never did.

But they had never spent a night like that before, either.

He went and found his phone, and dialed Jack. It rang, and rang, and eventually went to the generic voicemail Jack had never bothered to update. Gabriel didn't leave a message; he wasn't that desperate yet.

Except he was. Agitated, Gabriel paced the room a few times, and then haphazardly threw on some clothes and went to get in his car. Unsurprisingly, Jack's car was gone.

"You're already a stalker, Gabriel," he muttered, pulling out of the drive and inching over the speed limit as rapidly as he dared. "You don't need to be _that_ guy."

But he went into the coffee shop anyway.

 

Lena was working the counter, and she gave him a cheery wave as he approached. A quick look around the cafe presented no angel, so he waited in line until he could talk to her. "Hi Gabriel!" she chirped when the customer in front had stepped off. "Whatcha want?"

"Jack," Gabriel blurted, and internally cringed. "I mean, have you seen him? He's been missing."

"Don't think so," she answered, tapping the counter thoughtfully. "Not since Thursday. I mean, I'd remember, everyone remembers Jack. How long has he been gone?"

Gabriel cleared his throat. "Since this morning."

Lena had the audacity to snicker. "That's not that long. Going soft on the angel, are you?"

"No," Gabriel snapped, and then regretted it. "Sorry. Look, let him know I'm looking for him if he comes in, all right?"

"Sure thing, love. Now if you're not going to order, get out of the line."

Gabriel did as instructed, heading back out to sit in his car and take some deep breaths. He tried ringing Jack's phone again, and when it went to voicemail once more, he left a quick message. "Hey, Jack- where did you get off to? We need to talk."

God, that sounded stupid.

He drummed on the steering wheel, watching the traffic move around him as he sat parked on the curb. Would it be over the line to go to Jack's work? Probably. But what else was he going to do with his Saturday, all alone in his house?

He threw the car into gear.

 

"What, the angel? Nah mate, haven't seen him. Gone off hasn't he? Quit all sudden-like this morning," said the twitchy gremlin in the Target uniform. His name-tag proclaimed him to be "Jamison." Jamison, in Gabriel's opinion, was the most useless person he had ever had the misfortune to meet. This was why he didn't shop at Target.

"He quit?" he hissed. It took everything he had not to grip Jamison by the shirt that barely covered his lanky torso.

"Yeah," Jamison replied, thoroughly unaffected by his tone of voice. He even had the audacity to clean his ear while he was talking to Gabriel. "Don't know why. No notice or anything. Who's going to be all chipper about cleaning the bathrooms now, is what I want to know."

"...Who the Hell is your manager?" Gabriel snarled, itching to take his growing frustration out on someone. Jamison just giggled.

"S'me. Manager, present."

"And you don't know anything about what happened to Jack?"

"Nah."

Gabriel left before he did something he would regret.

 

Jack didn't show up that day, or all of Sunday. When Monday morning dawned, Gabriel had almost accepted his fate. He had fucked it up. He had pushed the angel too far, and now he was gone. He was going to have to find another goddamn roommate, and no one would be as good as Jack because he wouldn't be able to find another fucking angel.

He went to work because he needed to see somebody, but he snapped at everyone he came across that morning until he finally locked himself in his office to do some remote work. He nearly tried calling Jack again, but he had called upwards of twenty times over the weekend and left an embarrassing handful of messages, so there really was no point. Maybe he had dropped his phone in a toilet somewhere.

He ate lunch by himself, and returned to do more computer work, hitting the keys as forcefully as he could without breaking anything.

"You're so tense today, Gabe," came a voice from behind him, and Gabriel nearly punched Sombra through the wall.

"Back the fuck off, Sombra," he growled, round on her and giving her the most horrifying glare he could muster. Sombra merely stared back, sucking on another one of her horrible blood cups. "I have shit to do. Out."

"Angel gone?"

Gabriel stood up, towering over the cocky little vampire. "I'm going to actually kill you, Sombra. I have a fucking stake in my desk for that purpose. What do you know about Jack?"

"I know he's not at your place anymore, Gabe. A little bird tells me you've been trying to find him. I bet I could put some time into finding him for some extra vacation days."

"You barely do any work around here anyway."

"And wouldn't it be better to have me out of the way for a while?"

Gabriel pinched the bridge of his nose, and took a moment to compose himself. "Fine," he said, finally. "Fine, Sombra. Go work your tech magic. You find Jack, you can have an extra vacation day."

"Two."

"I swear to god, Sombra-"

Sombra wiggled her fingers at him and slipped out.

 

It took her two hours. Two hours, and the vampire was back in his office, looking smug as ever. "All right, Gabe-"

"Gabriel."

"Look at this," she said happily, ignoring him. She sat on his desk and activated the holographic interface above it. With a couple of quick motions, she plugged in a chip of hers and brought up several files. "I've got traffic cameras following him out of the city. When they stop, he was heading west towards Lake Monroe."

"That's all you got?"

"Patience is a virtue, Gabe. He turned his phone on today for a bit. He's sitting somewhere on the edge of the lake, about two miles down a logging path off the main road. I hope you like mud and potholes." She brought up a map of Lake Monroe, a large body of water surrounded by forest, and tapped in a little marker on the edge. "It'll take you just two hours to get there if you speed."

With a sigh, Gabriel sank back in his chair and rubbed his face. "Am I crazy, Sombra?"

"Si."

"Shut up."

"You asked."

"It pains me to say thank you, so I won't do it."

Sombra laughed. "Those two vacation days are thanks enough, Gabe. Now run and find your angel husband."

"One vacation day. And he's not my husband."

"Whatever." Pulling the files back, Sombra slid off his desk. "I'm taking a four day weekend."

"No you're not," Gabriel called, but Sombra was already out the door by then and he didn't have the energy to pursue the matter. Jack had clearly run, then. Run specifically from him. Obviously he shouldn't go after him, not if Jack didn't want to be found.

He had done this, after all. It was his own fault. He had pushed boundaries and the angel hadn't been ready for it.

But god, he already knew he was a terrible person, there was no denying it. So he packed up his things, plugged the coordinates Sombra had given him into his car, and set off for Lake Monroe.

 

The road along the lake's edge wound its way through trees and cut through hills. It was paved at first, and then dirt, and grew narrower the farther along it he drove. He began to worry for his car, which was a compact little thing that was made for city driving, not bumpy potholes and dust. The air grew cool and buggy as the evening wore on, and so Gabriel rolled up the windows and anxiously watched the dot on the map- Jack- get closer.

He wasn't that difficult to find. Just when Gabriel thought he would have to delve into the thick trees on either side of the road to locate the angel, there came a break in the foliage and a wide and spacious clearing appeared, covered in short grass and running right up to the water's edge. The lake extended into the distance, surrounded on all sides by hills full of trees, but Gabriel paid it no mind, not when he saw the figure near the water.

Jack's car had been parked near the water's edge, and Jack sat on top of it, looking out at the lake. Gabriel's gut twisted with apprehension, and he turned off the car some hundred yards from Jack's location and walked the rest of the way.

Jack gave no indication that he knew anyone was there until Gabriel was all of ten feet from hie vehicle, and then the angel twisted a little where he sat, and gave Gabriel a small smile. "Hello, Gabriel."

 _Hello Jack. I'm sorry. I missed you. What can I do?_ A million things rushed through Gabriel's head to say. _Just pick one, apologize, see if you can..._

"What the hell, Jackie?" _Dammit._

And the angel had the nerve to grin a little. "Sorry."

"I- you- god, Jack. No, fuck it all, I should be the one apologizing. I didn't mean to mess everything up-"

"You didn't mess everything up, Gabe."

"Yes, I did. Don't pull your angelic forgiveness bullshit on me, I was the one who-"

"Gabe," Jack interrupted, gentle but firm. "Come here." He patted the top of the car beside him.

Gabriel hesitates. "I feel like that's going to buckle under the both of us."

"Just come here."

Rather reluctantly, Gabriel climbed onto the hood of the car, and joined the angel on the top. The car creaked a little, but the roof held. Gabriel felt strange perched up there, feet resting on the windshield like some kind of stupid teenager at a bonfire. Across the lake, the sun had sunk below the trees, and the shadows- and stars- were creeping in. He became aware of the silence, broken only by the occasional murmur of frogs, and he felt like he ought to say something.

"Look, Jack-" he began, but the angel shushed him almost immediately, and then said nothing, only looking out at the water again. Gabriel felt rather offended, but kept his mouth shut as penance for his sins.

"I'm sorry I worried you," Jack said finally. His eyes still stared straight ahead, reflecting the dying light. "It was a stupid thing to do, leaving without any warning like that. I just... had to think."

"Jack-"

"Shhh."

"Can't I just-"

"No. Let me finish before you say something ridiculous." The angel looked at him now, looked at him with that soft and brilliant smile, and Gabriel's breath caught. He couldn't have spoken if he wanted to.

"I haven't fallen, you know," he went on, and Gabriel breathed again when the angel turned his gaze away once more. "I'm not going to. I've mentioned that before, so don't think anything you do is going to ruin me.

"But... I keep taking these steps. Farther from Heaven, closer to mortality. It happens everyday, in everything I do, every time I experience something human. Jealousy or lust, sure, but also excitement and contentment and what have you. The longer I stay here, the more naturally I start to belong here. So it's not you that's doing anything to me- it's all me.

"And, well. If I hadn't wanted to do what, uh, what we did on Friday, I wouldn't have done it. But I did, and it made me realize that... that was it. The act wasn't an involuntary tipping point, it's not like I'm banned from returning. But it was a sort of... mental tipping point on my part. It made me realize I don't want to return, not as an angel. Just someday, when I'm old, as a man."

He looked back at Gabriel again, and something in his mannerisms seemed suddenly bashful. "I... I don't want you to feel any pressure about this. I mean to say, I really do like you, quite a lot, but I'd have chosen to stay even if we hadn't done that. I'm going to stay even if... if you don't want to do that anymore. If you want me to move out or leave you alone, I can do that. I'll go be... more human... somewhere else."

He looked expectantly at Gabriel now, and Gabriel cleared his throat. His voice was hoarse, as if he hadn't used it in years rather than minutes. "Jesus, Jack, no. I don't want you to leave. Fuck, that's why I came out here to find you in the first place."

"...How did you find me?"

"Don't worry about it."

"Mm." The angel dropped his eyes. In the dim recesses of his mind, Gabriel realized they weren't being eaten by bugs, and he wondered if the angel was repelling them somehow. It seemed counter-intuitive, given the way the celestial being seemed to glow faintly. "Well, then, I'd like to come back, if that's okay."

"Of course it is, Jackie," Gabriel said gruffly, and he reached around Jack to pull him into a one-sided hug. "I wouldn't have you anywhere else."

The angel accepted the hug, but as Gabriel started to pull away, the angel caught him delicately by the chin with the tips of his fingers. "Good," Jack murmured, and he leaned in.

There was a blinding, blissful moment when their lips touched, and Gabriel couldn't muster up enough brain power to wonder if it was supernatural in origin. The angel kissed like- well, like someone who had never kissed anyone before, a little awkward and clumsy, but that was _okay_ , that was _all right_ , it was the best kiss Gabriel could recall ever having.

Jack started to pull away, too soon, and a rush of impulsiveness took hold of Gabriel. He caught the angel, pulled him back, deepened the kiss, and Jack made the sweetest noise of surprise and positively _melted_ in his grasp. It was intoxicating, having his hands on the pliant angel, and Gabriel wasn't certain how long they kissed for. It could have been seconds, it could have been years.

When they broke this kiss, finally, they were both gasping. The angel was flushed and wide-eyed, his hair messed up and his lips red from the pressure. Gabriel had never wanted anyone so badly in his life. He was uncomfortably hard in his slacks- he suspected they both were- but even as he reached up to cup the angel's face with one hand he slid back a little to give them both some room.

Jack leaned into his touch, eyes fluttering closed briefly. "I-" he began, his voice cracking, and he cleared his throat and tried again. "That was... that was really nice. I'd just like to... to go a little slow, if we can."

"Of course, cariño," Gabriel rumbled, and was delighted when the angel shivered at the sound of his voice. Slowly, he dropped his hand, and Jack looked a little lost without it.

"What I mean is," the angel muttered, "I just want to take it all a little at a time..."

"That's what slow is, yes."

"Well-" Jack started again, sounding rather flustered, and Gabriel took pity on him. Wrapping an arm around his waist, he leaned his head on the angel's shoulder and looked out at the water, giving Jack time to compose himself.

There was a little sigh, and then the angel gave him a little kiss on the top of his head, an action that sent a jolt of pleasure radiating down his spine. Distantly, Gabriel wondered how much of his infatuation was due to Jack's angelic aura, and how much was just him being stupidly head over heels. Would it fade as Jack took his little steps away from Heaven?

He hoped not. But as they sat there, cuddled up on the top of Jack's car with a lake full of stars in front of them, Gabriel realized he didn't care in the slightest.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, this is not the end. If these updates seem sporadic, it's because I'm not really a "writer." I'm a dabbler who puts words down when I get those precious bolts of inspiration. Expect another couple of chapters, featuring mostly smut.


	6. Enter into Temptation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning: Even more smut. The smut isn't stopping at this point.

Though they drove home separately, the walk from the cars to the door was spent trading kisses like teenagers. Gabriel spent three minutes fumbling with the key in the lock because Jack kept grabbing at him, pressing kisses to his neck, to his ear, to his jaw. The angel, who to Gabriel's knowledge had never kissed anyone before that night, had found something new and exciting and was overindulging.

Not that Gabriel thought to stop him. Gabriel barely had the presence of mind to close the door behind them.

The moment he did, Jack's fingers were carding through his hair, the angel's mouth hot and urgent on his own. Gabriel found himself pressed against Jack from head to toe, and it was dizzying. That golden hair, those soft lips, the scent of cinnamon- why did the angel always smell faintly of cinnamon? And, god, he could feel the angel hard against him, he was doing this to Jack, as though he had even a hint of the same power Jack had over him...

Gasping, they broke apart. The look Jack gave him was so warm, so affectionate, Gabriel had to look away for a moment to collect himself. When he looked back again, he was rewarded with another kiss, softer this time, sweeter.

Then: "Well," the angel murmured, pulling apart, "good night then."

And with that, he sauntered off into his own bedroom and closed the door, leaving Gabriel slumped against their front door.

_What?_

 

That week was torture.

Gabriel would wake up to some incredible baked good for breakfast, and a smiling, floured Jack- sometimes shirtless, sometimes not- would pull him in for kiss after kiss, until all Gabriel could think about was bending him over the counter, nevermind the damn pancakes.

But the damn pancakes were always delicious.

And then Jack would release him and go on his merry way, whether that be to wash dishes or to shower or to get ready for the day. "Lena put in a good word and I'm starting part time at the coffee shop," he told Gabriel happily after a particularly intense make-out session.

Gabriel had only managed a vague "Uh-huh," in response.

So Gabriel would go to work, and Jack would go to work. And then they would come home, make dinner together or order take-out, and inevitably end up on the couch trader the world's dirtiest chaste kisses.

And then Jack would excuse himself with a brilliant smile, kiss the top of Gabriel's head, and move off into his own bedroom. Alone.

Again.

It was killing Gabe.

Every night would see him in the shower or his own room, furiously working himself until he came, but it was always so unsatisfying when there was a better option just one door away. It wasn't enough.

But it was, of course. Afterwards, when he had calmed down, Gabriel would remind himself why he didn't push. He didn't want to scare Jack away, go too fast. They were 'taking it slow,' after all. Slow meant going the angel's pace, whatever that was.

Blasted angel.

 

Gabriel came to visit Jack at work, once, when leads at Blackwatch had dried up. The coffee shop was packed when he arrived, the line stretching almost to the door. He stepped to the side to avoid it- he wasn't there for coffee, after all- and a tiny fawn with dreadlocks caught sight of him and waved him over. Gabriel was certain Jack had introduced him to this guy. L something. Lu-

"Hey Gabriel!" the fawn said enthusiastically, and the little clip-clop of his hooves finished the memory. Lucio. "Here to see Jack?"

"Uh, yeah," Gabriel muttered, rubbing at his neck. "He in the back?"

"Naw, man! He's working the registers! The guy's got a gift. All the ladies love him. Never spells their names wrong on the cups or anything," Lucio chattered, leading Gabriel off to the side of the counter.

Jack was indeed working behind it, looking positively radiant even in the lame apron. Gabriel could swear the whole air around him shimmered with heavenly love. The customers, naturally, were thrilled. They spent a little too much time on their orders, hence the long line- though half the blame was on Jack, who seemed to know half of them and kept asking after their families.

Gabriel tried to ignore the sudden stab of jealousy. There was nothing to be jealous of. Jack was his anyway. None of these losers had any idea.

"He's better than an incubus," Lucio told him, nudging Gabriel's arm in a way that was a little too familiar. "Makes you feel all loved and stuff, it's crazy! It's wholesome, y'know?"

"Yeah," Gabriel answered shortly.

"Anyway, he's not due for a break for half an hour, but if you want to wait..."

And Gabriel had waited, because he was a sap who was in too deep.

 

The teasing and blue balls continued. The Saturday after the day at the lake, Gabriel decided he would just ask about it. Communicate, like the freaking adult that he was. Being open about sex was an important thing in a relationship and all that shit. 

So after dinner, when he had a beer and the angel had a cup of warm milk and they were watching something vaguely entertaining on television, he bit the bullet. "So..."

"So?" the angel murmured, glancing up at him from where his head rested on Gabriel's shoulder. Gabriel lost himself in those pretty blue eyes for a moment.

"So," he repeated, when he had recovered. "Uh."

"This is about sex, isn't it," the angel said briskly, and sipped at his milk.

"How _dare_ you- but yes," Gabriel admitted. He felt lighter, suddenly, because this was already easier than he thought it would be.

"It's, uh... well, I'm not asexual, if that's what you're wondering," Jack began, twisting his glass self-consciously.

"Hadn't even considered it," was his honest reply. Jack blushed, and plowed on.

"What I mean is, I do want sex. I mean- not like- I just do. Eventually. Uh. It just seems... overwhelming, you know?" The angel gave him a hopeful look.

"Sure," Gabriel agreed lightly, and gave his shoulder a little squeeze. "Look, Jackie, I wasn't going to- I'm never going to force you to do anything you don't want to do, yeah?"

"Oh. Thank you. Good."

"Good."

"Good."

Gabriel grinned. "But I thought, maybe, I could do something like what we did before. Focus on just you for a little while longer."

Jack flushed a brilliant pink. "Oh," he squeaked.

"And this time, maybe I could actually touch you."

The angel took a long and fortifying swig of milk, but didn't find his voice in the cup. "I'd- I'd like that-" he choked out. "Um. Yes."

"Right now?"

"Haa..."

Gabriel set down his beer, and then took the milk out of Jack's hand and gave him a minute to compose himself, turning instead to watch whatever the fuck was happening on the television. He honestly couldn't care. The angel shifted and twisted in his seat for a long moment, and then blurted out, "Yes. _Right now_."

That was all it took.

It was like some straining rubber band inside of him had snapped. Gabriel was on him in an instant, sweeping him flat onto the couch, pressing down on top of him, capturing his mouth with kisses. Jack let out a startled little noise that dissolved into a quiet moan, spurring him on. Despite his initial embarrassment, the angel gave as good as he got- kissing, at least, he had had some practice in by then.

But, god, it wasn't enough. Gabriel could feel the heat pooling low and tight, furthered by every little gasp and groan the angel made, and it _just wasn't enough_. He needed to be closer, needed to feel the angel's skin against his. So in one rough movement, he broke away, pulling off his own shirt and working the angel's ridiculous bible camp top up his torso.

Jack, dazed and gaping at him, managed to catch on and pulled his own shirt over his head. And then Gabriel pressed against him again, feeling the blessed heat of their skin together, and _this_ must have been heaven on earth...

And then he ground down against him, chasing after the friction that Jack too must have been seeking, and _god_ , he was never going to forget the _sound_ the angel made. He did it again, and Jack's head fell back, his eyes nearly rolling back into the sockets.

"Again," the angel pleaded, and the little word was enough to bring him back to reality for a moment. Slow down. This was for Jack.

"Just wait, this will be better," he promised gruffly, and slid back. Jack looked absolutely devastated by the loss of contact, and Gabriel narrowed his eyes.

"Stop that."

"Stop what?" Jack asked breathlessly.

"Stop with the puppy eyes."

"I'm not- oh!"

Jack broke off as Gabriel cupped him through his pants, and his hips jerked up at the sensation. Slowly, Gabriel began to rub his thumb in circles, and Jack whimpered and slung an arm over his eyes to hide himself. For a moment, Gabriel stopped. "Good?"

" _Gabriel!_ " Jack nearly shouted, which Gabriel took as a sign to continue.

Slowly, he slid Jack's pants down, and swallowed thickly at the sight of the wet patch on the angel's briefs. He couldn't remember ever wanting anyone so badly in his life- nor, if he was being honest, anybody ever wanting him so badly in return. Jack peeked at him from under his arm, and when Gabriel gave him a rather predatory smile he was rewarded by a twitch and a groan.

"I'm going to take these off, all right?" he asked, his fingers curling over the edge of Jack's briefs, and the angel gave a mute but enthusiastic nod.

Carefully, Gabriel slid the briefs off as well, allowing Jack's cock to spring free, flushed and dripping. Gabriel's mouth grew wet at the sight of it. The damn angel was big, probably bigger than he was, and he wondered for a moment why the angel had come down in a body so well-endowed. Wouldn't 'average' have been the approved standard for angel bodies? Surely they'd never-

And then Jack gave him a Look, his pupils blown wide by lust, and Gabriel lost his train of thought entirely. "Tell me if you want me to stop," he growled, and then dove down and took the angel in his mouth.

It was just as well he had the foresight to brace the angel's hips; Jack cried out above him and tried to thrust up, and Gabriel only grinned and sucked harder. There was a strangely logistical moment as Gabriel tried to hold him still even as he used his hand and his mouth to work the angel, and then Jack moaned his name and Gabriel was lost.

Never had he enjoyed sucking someone off so much. The angel's scent was intoxicating, his lust contagious. Gabriel found himself rutting into the couch, but he couldn't stop himself, couldn't even think it; Jack was writhing under him, gasping and moaning and not even trying to keep quiet, and Gabriel loved every second of it.

He could feel it when the pace changed, when Jack's movements became feverish and desperate, and he sped up to match. Jack grasped at his hair, a wordless attempt to warn him, but Gabriel merely took him as deeply as he dared, and in the next moment the angel came with a hoarse shout even as Gabriel swallowed it down.

Gasping, Jack fell backwards again, and Gabriel released him, reached down, and brought himself off with a couple of short strokes. It didn't take long, not after what he had just accomplished, and Jack watched him through it with a sort of helpless awe. "I want- next time-" Jack breathed, reaching vaguely in his direction, and Gabriel just groaned and collapsed on top of him.

They lay there for a few long moments until they were too unbearably sticky, and then Gabriel helped Jack- who was rather boneless- to sit next to him on the couch instead.

"That- I-" Jack tried, and then gave up. He looked stupidly beautiful, Gabriel thought, his hair messed up and his pants around his ankles, and...

"...You even taste like cinnamon," he noted, and the angel laughed weakly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably still another chapter or two of smut to go. At least one more. We'll see. Plot, what plot.


End file.
